Following discussions are given on the related art in the light of the present invention.
Up to now, there has been known an apparatus for detecting the concentration of nitrogen oxide in which, as disclosed for example in European Patent Publication 0678740A1, SAE paper No. 960334 p. 137 to 142, 1996, a first measurement chamber communicating via a first diffusion rate defining layer with a gas to be measured and a second measurement chamber communicating via second diffusion rate defining layer with this first measurement chamber are formed by an oxygen ion conducting electrolyte layer, a first oxygen pumping cell and an oxygen concentration measurement cell are formed in the first measurement chamber by sandwiching a solid electrolyte layer between porous electrodes and, and in which a second oxygen pumping cell and an oxygen concentration measurement cell are formed in the second measurement chamber by sandwiching a solid electrolyte layer between porous electrodes, to constitute a sensor for detecting the concentration of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the exhaust gases of the internal combustion engines.
In this type of the nitrogen oxide concentration detecting apparatus, the current is supplied to the first oxygen pumping cell so that the output voltage from the oxygen concentration measurement cell will be at a pre-set constant value and oxygen is pumped out from the first measurement chamber to control the oxygen concentration to a constant value. A constant voltage is applied across the second oxygen pumping cell for further pumping oxygen out of the second measurement chamber. The NOx concentration in the gas under measurement is detected from the value of the current flowing in this second measurement chamber.
In the exhaust gases from the internal combustion engines, that is gases under measurement, there are gaseous components other than NOx, namely oxygen, carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide etc. In the above-mentioned the nitrogen oxide concentration detecting apparatus, the current is caused to flow in the first oxygen pumping cell for extracting oxygen in the first measurement chamber, substantially in its entirety, and a constant voltage is applied across the second oxygen pumping cell in the second measurement chamber in a direction of pumping out oxygen out of the second measurement chamber, to decompose NOx in the gas under measurement into nitrogen and oxygen by the catalytic action of the porous electrode constituting the second oxygen pumping cell, to extract oxygen from the second measurement chamber. This enables detection of the NOx concentration in the gas under measurement without being affected by the gaseous components contained in the gas under measurement.
Also, in this type of the nitrogen oxide concentration detecting apparatus, it is necessary to heat the sensor to a pre-set activation temperature, e.g., not less than 800° C., for correctly measuring the NOx concentration by the above-described detection method. Thus, a heater is separately provided for heating the sensor.
For controlling the sensor to a pre-set temperature using the heater, it may be contemplated to use a control method customarily used in an oxygen sensor configured for detecting the oxygen concentration in the exhaust gases using an oxygen concentration sensor comprised of a solid electrolyte layer sandwiched between porous electrodes.
That is, for controlling the sensor temperature, a variety of methods have been devised, such as a method controlling the amount of the current supplied to the heater so that the heat evolution in the heater will be constant, a method controlling the amount of the heater current by a pre-set control pattern so that the sensor temperature will be a target temperature, or a method of detecting the sensor temperature for controlling the amount of the current supplied to the heater, as disclosed in JP Patent Kokai JP-A-59-163556 or in JP Patent Kokai JP-A-59-214756. It may be envisaged to use these conventional control methods in the nitrogen oxide concentration detecting apparatus.